grobblewobble wrote:
bpat wrote:
Equipment
Some items become very valuable on Insane, these are anything with Stone Wall, Disperse Magic, a digging active, and Wards (especially physical). Thorny Skin totems are excellent, as are Psychoport Torques. Prox's Lucky Halfling Foot and other status managing items are great too. You will want to get as much armor as possible to deal with powerful melee foes, and caster classes are no exception. Almost all characters will want to use heavy or massive armor, with a few exceptions (Reaver and Corruptor can get away with robes thanks to Bone Shield).
This is one of the most informative parts of the guide to me. Could you elaborate further on the use of these items? I am definitely not using many of them enough. For example, up until now I used to toss items with wards into the transmogrifyer, without having a clue what they're good for.
About the races, I agree that the ones you mentioned (thalore, shalore, ogre) are usually best in terms of endgame power. However, I think Cornac deserves a mentions because they are great in the early game. Starting with an extra inscription is usually more of a help than racials, to help you survive up until, say, the tower. So perhaps certain classes (that have a very strong endgame) might prefer cornac, sacrificing some late game power in return for better early game survival?
Wards are amazing, using the Ward talent gives you a number of "Wards" of a damage type, which act like Bone Shield charges. This means if you know an tough enemy does a lot of damage of a specific type, you can block many of its hits. I find physical Wards to be the most important because its so common. I had someone ask me in chat once something like "What if the enemy uses Flurry or similar and takes down most of your Wards in one turn?" Well then you blew your Ward cooldown for a Flurry cooldown, which is a decent trade, and that's one of the worst cases. Other excellent ward types are fire, mind, and blight, though most are pretty good except for arcane.
Disperse Magic deactivates sustains like Burning Wake, Bone Shield, and Necrotic Aura. Stone Wall gives some breathing room to heal and wait out cooldowns, like Temporal Reprieve. Instant digging actives let you set up favorable terrain mid-combat, though I prefer to do this ahead of time or not at all so I personally do not use them, but they still deserve a mention.
So Cornac and Doomelf are also really good races, but they aren't ones I pick so I have very little to say about them (I don't even have Doomelf unlocked because I refuse to do the Dark Crypt). They're probably worth considering but I can't really say anything meaningful about them. For what it's worth I don't value Inscription slots very highly early since at most you want something like Regeneration/Shielding, Movement, and Wild/Phase Door. Only times I wish I had more is when Last Hope sells a good Heroism, which isn't very often.
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My wiki page, which contains a guide and resource compilation and class tier list.